Thought Leadership

Principles for a better Programmatic Marketplace: An Open Letter to Advertisers and Publishers

October 17, 2018

By Rubicon Project, OpenX, Pubmatic, Sovrn, SpotX, Telaria

Programmatic advertising is a powerful system that enables extremely precise, data-driven advertising at scale. Yet, it hasn’t reached its full potential because it has been too complex and at times too opaque. To maximize participation in programmatic advertising, the industry’s leading sell-side exchanges have come together to adopt a framework of Principles and commitments that promote clarity and trust for every participant in the market.

Together, we are committed to unleashing the full potential of programmatic advertising. Advertisers, publishers, and their representatives need and deserve transparent marketplace Principles, which clearly explain how the market operates, reduce friction, ensure quality, and increase value for buyers and sellers.

There are three core Principles at the foundation of all effective markets: Efficiency, Transparency, and Fair-market. We agree not only to these broad principals, but to the measurable and verifiable actions necessary to build the long-term trust programmatic advertising must have to grow and thrive. Specifically, we the undersigned companies agree to a new direction—a new deal for advertisers and publishers alike—to form the foundation of the future of digital consumer engagement. The components include the following:

All bid requests will specify the auction type (e.g., whether the auction is 1st or 2nd price)

No Undisclosed Business Arrangements

No undisclosed business arrangements (such as kickbacks or rebates) that could unnaturally influence spend away from fair market values and principles

No Biased Auction Mechanics

Actions such as non-transparent bid-caching or proprietary container preferencing that could undermine the integrity of the fair auction are forbidden

These core Principles and their underlying measurable and verifiable metrics form the foundation of a new way forward to navigate the increasingly fragmented media environment advertisers face today. The undersigned are committed to making their exchanges compliant with these Principles. They give publishers and buyers alike complete confidence in a fair, transparent, and verifiable programmatic marketplace. We agree to hold ourselves to these standards, and to hold the broader programmatic marketplace accountable to these Principles. We must be good stewards of the advertising dollars we have been entrusted with.

Agreeing to and becoming compliant with this set of Principles is just the first step. We are committed to working closely with TAG (Trustworthy Accountability Group) to form a new compliance and accountability certification based on the above Principles. Publishers, buyers, and their representatives can confidently rely upon this certification to make their programmatic advertising decisions.

Trust is the most important component of any business relationship. Trust is earned, and we are committed to building a lasting, high-quality, and trusted programmatic marketplace for the future of advertising.